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Randsco Site Map

Again, this is something that I've been wanting to do for some time and I believe that a site map is necessary to help those people out that have a hard time figuring out what is what on our site. I'd like to think that our menu system is easy and will work, but some people just require a site map to figure it out. So ... here you go ... a site map. (It currently sucks, which is why it's shown as display:none!)

About the Kimlers

This is where visitors can find out about Randsco and the Kimler family. Who are we? How did we come to be? What motivates us on our adventures. It's kinda like the old "meet scott and rachel" section on our PCT WebPage, but this "about us" section will be a stand-alone page.

FEATURED DONOR: The "Red Dirt Emporium", located in the historic "Bricktown District" of Oklahoma City, made a donation toward - and is using - Photo-caption Zoom Version 3. The Red Dirt Emporium was founded in 2007 and has a goal of introducing visitors and locals to the best that Oklahoma has to offer. They specialize in Oklahoma resources, art, music and other items that celebrate Oklahoma

Since they are largely responsible for the "Thank You" section of our sidebar and this "Shout Outs" blog, it's fitting that one of the first shouts should go to Oklahoma's Red Dirt Emporium.

What's the story?

Simple.

The Red Dirt Emporium was one of the few companies (or people) that made an unsolicited donation for their commercial usage of the Photo-caption Zoom v3 technique.

Not only was their contribution unsolicited, but they didn't require any support to get it deployed.

One day, a donation email arrived and I thought, "Wow. Cool. I really should find a way to say 'Thank You' to them (and others who've helped Randsco) ... I know I've been meaning to ... I just need to DO IT!"

So, I made this section and (slowly) have begun populating it with some of the many people and companies that have - in some way - supported or helped Randsco. It's provides a formal way of saying "Thanks" and helps to promote their website (in a Search-Engine-friendly kind of way).

To learn how Oklahoma's Red Dirt Emporium is using Photo-caption Zoom and about some of their unique products, carry on ...

Mother of All Mashups

Mother of All Mashups

I have John of wow-factor.com to thank for turning me on to an amazing mashup of music by an Israeli named "Kutiman". Kutiman has mixed a variety of disparate YouTube videos, creating amazing new music. Rarely does something cross my desk that astounds me. This did.

Every once in a while, you run across something on the Internet that blows your socks off and redefines your very understanding of the world. So it was for me, when my Australian mate turned me onto Thru-You, an online album of recycled YouTube music.

"Wow," Scott said, replaying the music again and again, in an effort to digest and fully comprehend the creative genius at work.

"The vision, patience, technical and musical knowledge that's required [to pull together unrelated YouTube videos and mix them into a completely new sound] is just astounding," Scott claimed, upon watching (and hearing) "The Mother of All Funk Chords", which is the first of seven songs contained in this online album.

See if you agree. Watch Kutiman's YouTube mix and learn more about the controversy that it created!

You-Tube, i-Tube, We-All-Tube for You-Tube!

The premise is simple: Pull together various YouTube videos and extract bits and pieces and cobble them together (repeating portions ad-nauseously, if necessary) to make something that is both compelling and completely new. The artistry, of course, is in the doing of it. Which is why, until now, we've not seen such a construction. It was bound to happen, of course, and it was finally perpetrated by an Israeli by the name of Ophir Kutiel (AKA Kutiman).

I think part of Kutiman's success is that he utilized many YouTube "music lesson" videos, which contain pure music, emanating from a single instrument and which are uncluttered by other musicians and noise. Regardless, the result is astounding and even if you don't like funk, you can appreciate what Kutiman has wrought!

It's a true Tower of Power! Here you go ... presenting the first track off of Kutiman's YouTube album "ThruYou" is "The Mother of All Funk Chords!"

Sarah Amstutz sings acappella in her living room with a baby sitting in her lap. She sings an original song and decides to post her video on YouTube. It gathers some 9,000 views in about a year.

Then along comes Kutiman. He uses Sarah's video (along with a number of others) to create a completely new tune called "Someday".

This song, as with the others by Kutiman are impressive! We're not talking about straight editing here. Kutiman put in oodles of time, effort and creative energy into synthesizing, amalgamating and processing all these disparate musical (and visual) bits. In the case of "Someday", Sarah's acapella is accompanied by a wide variety of eclectic musical instruments: farfisa mini organ, conga, vibraphone, recorder, roland synthesizer, a Tibetan bowl and a Jews harp, just to name a few.

With the amazed mass, come the sniveling lawyers, each claiming, "Copyright infringement." Kutiman's new album of mashed-up YouTube videos has garnered a number of comments over at Techdirt. How long will it be before a certain Mr. Ophir Kutiel finds himself holding a registered letter from a multi-named legal firm, requesting his presence in some over-wooded room full of legal albatrosses?

Personally, I hope "never". In this case at least, the total is far greater than the sum of its parts.

One factor to consider is the fact that Kutiman didn't just yard over video from YouTube, incorporate it into a new work and then moved on - he credits everyone's video that was used in his creation and even gives them "thanks" on his website.

To follow through, let's look at each of the "players" in his first song "The Mother of All Funk Chords" - roughly in order of appearance:

Yeah, I thought it was pretty rocking too! (And to think there are some that are sniveling about "copyright").

Mind you ... if I was IN the video AND it had commercial success, I'd think it was pretty cool to collect some revvs. But if it's just a "for free" thing ... I'd be pointing all my friends at the vid, "Hey look! It's ME!"